Jenny Barringer

The state of Florida may produce a bumper crop of football players and sprinters, but cross country runners don’t add much to the Sunshine State’s athletic reputation. Maybe it’s because the state is generally pancake flat, which leaves native harriers at a disadvantage when they compete on hillier terrain.

When Jenny Barringer left the suburbs of Orlando to compete in North Carolina, her reaction upon seeing the hills for the first time was, "you’ve got to be kidding me." Back home, she and her coach realized she’d need to incorporate hillwork into her training, "which is kind of tough, since there aren’t really any hills in central Florida," she jokes. The few inclines they utilized in a nearby park must have sufficed, as Jenny won the Foot Locker South regional by 14 seconds, then placed third in the nationals after leading for much of the race, both on hilly courses.

"I think a lot of hill running is mental attitude," she says. "You just have to tough it out. The hardest part for me was running downhill—I don’t have enough experience to have good technique."

If the terrain Jenny runs on has been primarily flat, her career has been steadily on the incline, from the time she ran a one-mile race in fourth grade. "Since then I’ve always loved to run," she says, a passion that quickly becomes apparent when speaking with her. That affection paid off last autumn when she became a force to be reckoned with on the national scene.

"I was a good runner last year, but this has been a breakthrough season." She attributes much of that to the motivation created by finishing 12th at the Foot Locker regionals as a sophomore after being sick all week. "That really set me up for this cross country season," she says. "I told myself, ‘I’m going to nationals.’ It was just a matter of putting the pieces together."

"I ran hills and went in the weight room twice a week to get stronger," she says. She also ran a tougher schedule of more outside meets, highlighted by a one-second loss to eventual FL champ Katelyn Kaltenbach at the Great American Cross Country Festival in September. "That really helped my confidence, and made me realize I could run aggressively with the top runners. Following an undefeated state XC campaign, she ran a two mile in a boys track meet as a workout, and astonished everyone by clocking 10:18.84, the second fastest time in Florida history.

At nationals she stuck with her aggressive style and found herself leading a pack of eight a mile into the race. "I just tried not to psych myself out, thinking about leading a national championship. There are 32 girls who are state-champion-caliber runners, and most of us have pretty much been out front by ourselves in most of our races. So to have people around you is kind of a different experience."

Obviously, Jenny handled it better than all but two runners, but she’s already looking ahead to next year. "I won’t lie, it would have been great to win, but it would also be tough to do that as a junior—what do you do for an encore? The pressure must be tremendous. But this sets me up for next year. I’ve already got my goal."

Given that this flatlander has made a habit of steadily climbing the physical and mental hills she faces, don’t bet against her standing on the ultimate pinnacle in San Diego next December.